I know all the puns have been used. I know. But since I am on Twitter now, it makes this harder and easier at the same time.
My online friend, Mary Anne, met through Godin, bought this Springsteen as a Christmas gift for her husband, even though she said she's no good at keeping secrets. This morning, she, I, John T. Unger and Hugh MacLeod all were on Twitter at the same time, tweeting about art and marketing. John had this very inspirational post that I added to my "Online Motivation" section off to your right. Hugh is now turning from his marketing career more towards his art, which I think is sometimes extremely profound.
The thing about Twitter is due to the update length limitation, conversations can be realtime-ish, but stilted. Hugh is a very NYC New Yorker, so he's tough to pin down. He currently lives near Austin, so I've been trying to get him to go check out Wild About Music and see my art in person. He's now selling high quality prints of some of his work in limited quantities, and to start, they're $175. I'm hoping maybe he'll go for a trade. We'll see.
But the discussion was about how a lot of artists are hesitant in promoting their own art. I understand the fear of the unknown, but jump in! The extent of my online presence is pretty much all due to my own efforts in creating a presence in the first place and personal relationships from that. Things just spread organically. Now, just about all my sales come from direct communication with buyers, other than at vinyl art shows. It makes me extremely happy because then I get to follow the story of my pieces.
The trick is balance. Shutting up completely doesn't work, at least it won't for me. I know that. Part of my journey with art is becoming more social, more open. That's what doing my art is doing for my personal growth, me the introverted geek in school. So I've gotta keep talking.
Besides, I'm kinda getting fond of this blog and I want to find more people who'd be interested in reading back a ways. There are some good posts back there. Find any you like?
Peace.
SOLD - Bruce Springsteen 12/05/08
Friday, December 5, 2008
All A-Twitter
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5 comments:
Hey Daniel,
I enjoyed the conversation also. Be fun to do a round table type talk as a podcast or something sometime.
Thanks for adding that post to the sidebar, too!
I'll be in Austin for SXSW in March and will go check out your work then.
:D Hey Daniel I'm following you on Twitter now. I always feel slightly dirty after pimping out my art LOL. I think this is why agents are useful for some people. Now if I could just motivate myself to look for representation... also then I would have to get stuff done on time!
@johntunger - Hey, wow! Thanks for the comment. I'd love to be a part of any discussion like that, which is more constructive than destructive.
I'll be quite curious to know what you think about my art after seeing it in person. Who's your favorite musician, by the way?
@wickeddollz - Thanks for finding me. That question on your blog about the persistent present was wonderful.
As far as feeling dirty about pimping out your art, that's exactly what we talked about on Twitter. I don't understand that. It's your art. You believe in it. You want people to know about it, see it, maybe buy it. Why not feel honored to be able to share it? Godin talked about "self promotion" and helped me with a mindshift from thinking I'm promoting myself to I'm promoting my art, art which will make the world a better place. Helps a recovering introvert like myself. Although it is a lot of work, and as you noted, getting motivated to do what we do is hard enough.
But worth it!
Peace.
Finally seeing this post... Nice! Look forward to more chat in '09. Happy New Year! :D
@MAD - Thanks! Glad your hubby liked the painting. Hope your switch from Blogger doesn't mean you don't like me anymore, ;)
Peace and Happy New Year!
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